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Yeah, I think it's legit, too. I'm just saying that it LOOKS legit. Meaning that it's not a scam. Like some stupid Ebayers
are doing to us nice MOTU collectors. I did not think that someone
would actually repaint an old blonde He Man and pass it for a
WB He Man for the money, until after I read this post anyway.

Hears my theory, and also appears to be some others as
well....

I do believe it was suppose to actually be a "Conan" figure, not
He Man. But because Mattel did not want to have Conan,
they thought that character was too "violent" for kids at the time,
they came up with "He Man and the Masters of the Universe"
instead. So, they remade the figure with new paint job,
body armor and different weapons. That's my guess.

I also think that it was put out by Mattel ONLY. Where
do you see "Wonderbread" written on the promo card?
It's all Mattel's doing. Who else would it be anyway?
I don't remember that figure offer from Wonderbread,
Although, I DO remember this figure being offered!
I think it was when you go to Toys R Us or some store,
they would have these " promo" cards that you fill
for what ever Mattel had for a mail offer, like Barbie,
Hotwheels and He Man. This was the " He Man" offer.
Mail in the card with some proofs of purchase from other He Man
toys and you get this guy.

Does anyone have a time machine so I can end this
thing once and for all? Make sure you set it for like
1983. :lol

Here is a pic of Thulsa Doom which some say looks like Skeletor. So He-man is Conan and Thulsa Doom is Skeletor. Okay people let the debate begin!

Now keep in mind I haven't read that comic but it looks like Thulsa Doom is just a wizard wearing a mask. Skeletor really was a bone head. I could be very wrong since i haven't read that comic before though

I would agree there! This was the original concept for Mattel
anyway. Mattel wanted to launch a "Conan" toy series, but
decided to "tone down" the characters, so to speak, and
created their own version of Conan, but more for just kids.
Since the movie was intended for adults. I don't know the
exact story, but this is what I heard and read about.

Originally posted by nutnog Now keep in mind I haven't read that comic but it looks like Thulsa Doom is just a wizard wearing a mask. Skeletor really was a bone head. I could be very wrong since i haven't read that comic before though

I have the comic and the issues that follow and that is Thulsa Dooms true Head in the comic. He has a Skull Head.

Originally posted by +ScareGlo+ I do believe it was suppose to actually be a "Conan" figure, not
He Man. But because Mattel did not want to have Conan,
they thought that character was too "violent" for kids at the time,
they came up with "He Man and the Masters of the Universe"
instead. So, they remade the figure with new paint job,
body armor and different weapons. That's my guess.

I completely agree. The Mail-Order He-man was probably the Conan figure being stored in a warehouse somewhere that they just wanted to get rid of. It looks EXACTLY like Conan.

There still one problem with that theory. What about LORD FALLEN ELDOR's He-man prototype pictures? (Go to the first page of this thread and scroll down to see the prototype photos)

The prototype has blond hair and looks almost identical to the final product not like WB He-man which of course has brown hair and black boots. The other prototype however, with the horned helmet, that one was clearly the first one with a strong resemblance to the Conan movie poster.

Unless of course the prototype's hair was later painted to resemble the final product and therefore eliminate any connection at all with Conan. But then again the body armor looks sculped to the figure.

Hey guys.......Peter here. I'm the owner of the Conan looking He-man prototype. Just in case you guys didn't know, this was actually the original design for he-man. You can see the likeness to the current figures, however there is much more detail. As for that second pictured he-man so called prototype. I actually don't know if thats legit or now. too many thinga bout it seem odd. However if it is real, it was done later in the production stage. I actually have a certificate of Authenticity from the original sculpter of that he-man/conan piece. I also have a bunch or original Artowrk from this same artist!

Getting on the the Wonderbread He-man. I don't believe it was actually from wonderbread at all. But we'll continue to use that name. The reason it got that name probably came from someone who remember mailing into Wonderbread for He-man trading cards. I believe this piece to be a actualy Mattel production piece. As for all being customs. that isn't true! I ahve found 3 of these at a local flea market in recent years, and never paid for more than $4-. If it was a customized piece...I think I'd be paying a little more! Possibly a test market piece from mattel, but I think these have been found all over the united states. anyone know if they have been found in Canada? not at the collector level, but at flea market or garage sale? I don't remember hearing of any, which mewans it's a US released piece only! Now typically when a comapny has a mail order premium, these aren't handled in the actual factories themselves. Typically packed and shipped to a packging firm (sorts out all orders, and address's boxes going out). typically production factories don't ahve the machines for this type of procedures. Factories are designed for mass market production and shipping. Too many of these have been found for it to be fake, as for Mattel not knowing anyhting about this....I don't find that to be too unusual. Records back in the 70s & 80s aren't like they are now. most were recorded not on computers, but in record books. For a comapny the size of Mattel, these record book pile up and pile up over the years. I'm not sure the legal requirements, but I find it pretty concievable that the records were either destroyed or transfered to a storage shelter, and are locked up with no attentioned being paid to them.

So getting abck to my point. I 100% believe this piece to be legit Mattel piece, and yes it is a RARE piece! as for why aren't that many found in bags? Well assuming a parrent mailed in for this figure, means they would ahve cut proof of purchase off other figures...tehrfore probably they are opening them (I don't see to many he-man figures w/o proof of purchase on E-bay). If they have kids who are opening these figures, it is highly probable as soon as the kids got the figure in the mail it was opened too. The parents would ahve piad for this figures shipping, therfore it was more or less for their kids enjoyment.

Comparing this to the number of carded figures on the market....many figures were sold at retail, and sold to wholesale retailers. At these places, many collecotrs at the time could have, and probably did buy multiples of these things. you'll have the occasional 8-back he-man figure come onto the market, but they aren't too common.....for reasons being this was the original release of these figures and most purchased at retail were for kids to play with.

Wow Peter... always amazing getting to know your thoughts on these subjects. I could read for hours.
The problem with WONDER BREAD HE-MAN is the same as with any other items, which no one knows anything about. They sell either for extremely high, or ridiculously low prices. I've just put up on eBay.com that rare mail-in (MANTENNA/LEECH), which includes the figures carded! I doubt that it will get a adequate price, because it isn't mentioned anywhere on the net. However, WONDER BREAD HE-MAN is really cool. And quite amazing too, because it is one of the few loose figures, which sells that high.

As I remember some years ago when He-man was taking off again thanks to the internet and ebay, the old he-man.com, owned by Adam at the time, never really mentioned this. I guess, at the time with the small number of he-man fans around and all conglomerating on this site, no one ever mentioned this figure. Then lo-and-behold a figure popped up on ebay one day no-one had ever seen before. This was back in 97 or so. Slowly after that, more and more of these figures popped up. Some fakes, some real, but the point was there is a non-bought in stores he-man figure and more scary was that it was a legit figure.

If my memory still serves me, I'm 26 so its starting to go, the auction that stirred up this nest of hornets was titled or mentioned somewhere in it "wonder bread." Shortly after this, AFN published an artilce about MOTU and all the figures loose with variants. One of these varients was a "Mail Order" He-man. I don't know if the figure was titled WB, but these are the events to my recollection of the mystery of WB.

Darren and I have only 2 of these figures in our collection. The first one was a loose figure followed by the Baggie He-man. The only bad thing about him as I admit, its impossible to determine if this figures is legit or not. But is neat to have I guess.

Originally posted by Lieutenant Fowler As I remember some years ago when He-man was taking off again thanks to the internet and ebay, the old he-man.com, owned by Adam at the time, never really mentioned this. I guess, at the time with the small number of he-man fans around and all conglomerating on this site, no one ever mentioned this figure. Then lo-and-behold a figure popped up on ebay one day no-one had ever seen before. This was back in 97 or so. Slowly after that, more and more of these figures popped up. Some fakes, some real, but the point was there is a non-bought in stores he-man figure and more scary was that it was a legit figure.

If my memory still serves me, I'm 26 so its starting to go, the auction that stirred up this nest of hornets was titled or mentioned somewhere in it "wonder bread." Shortly after this, AFN published an artilce about MOTU and all the figures loose with variants. One of these varients was a "Mail Order" He-man. I don't know if the figure was titled WB, but these are the events to my recollection of the mystery of WB.

Darren and I have only 2 of these figures in our collection. The first one was a loose figure followed by the Baggie He-man. The only bad thing about him as I admit, its impossible to determine if this figures is legit or not. But is neat to have I guess.

Take care all and have a Merry Christmas.

don't know if this has been asked, but on the WB or mail in he-man is it dated on the back or anywhere on this figure?? also the country??

Well He-man actually started out as a take off of Conan itself, but was shortly changed over to it's current likeness due to the fear that paraents wouldn't want their children playing with such evil looking characters...if that makes sense. This conan looking he-man prototype, was actually the first design of He-man, but was changed due to this issue with the marketing department. Therefore the reason why this figure resembles Conan so much!

What about the second He-man prototype? Does anybody know anything about it?
Although the theory of WB He-man being Conan makes sense this particular prototype destroys that theory since the prototype's hair is blond (like the "final product") and not brown with black boots like WB He-man.

We don't know who owns that prototype and therefore we don't even know if it is legit. I emailed Peter and asked him about it and that is why he posted earlier in this thread. He said he had a chance to purchase it but passed it up because something didn't seem right with it. But the Conan/he-man prototype we know is 100% legit, that blond prototype we have no clue about it.

If anyone here is the owner of the blond prototype please step up and tell us you are the owner and give us some info.

I have here in my hand, which I know none of yall can see, my opened WB He-man in baggie. First off let me say this about the figure. It was won off of ebay in June of 2000. About the same time a Man-E-Weapons was up for bid and another high dollar peice. The figure itself is C-10 condition hands down. There are no paint flakes, scratches, chips, blimishes of any kind on the figure. There is NO blond hair under the brown hair. The paint for the hair itself does not even cover all of the molded hair lines so some of the hair is still skin color. The joints are all tight just like a new figure is, the black paint on the belt goes all of the way to the center of the figure if you turn the torso to the side and its air brushed or something since there are no tale-tale scrape marks of brush strokes. The Brown trunks are molded in the color of brown plastic. If I spread he-man spread eagle and look inside, all of that too is of the same brown plastic color. The boots are black with no scuff or chipped paint. The figure in my opinion is legit.

Oh, and on the back is dated MATTEL 1981 TAIWAN. The other WB He-man we have is dated MATTEL 1981 TAIWAN. I know that does not mean anything but just letting everyone know whats on mine.

David's post just reminded me of some facts that we have learned from polls and other members at he-man.org.

1) It appears that all WB He-mans have the same thing stamped on the lower back "MATTEL 1981 TAIWAN." I have 4 wb he-mans and all of them have the same stamp. And there is yet one to pop up with different markings than this. So we can conclude that they were all made in the same country and probably in the factory in Taiwan.

2) All members that claim to have a WB from their youth say that they lived in the United States. Also there haven't been any that have popped up for sale in other countries, except when a foreign adult collector sells theirs, thats the only time a WB figure has popped up in another country, and that original collector got their figure from someone in the United States. So we can conclude that it was a United States exclusive!

3) This one is kind of "iffy" some people say that the original 8-back first release figures have a different waist mechanism than the ones that followed. The original mechanism has this click locking mechanism that kind of locks the figures waist into the center. This is really hard for me to explain, but maybe someone else can explain it better. If you turn the waist you encounter this resistence that clicks or pops. Anyways WB he-man has this feature so we "MIGHT" assume he was a first release figure, which means he was one of the original figures created.

I'm still hoping to be one of the lucky ones to find this figure at a garage sale, so I can snatch it up for under $5. Some of you may say, "*pishh* Good luck! You'll need it!" but I have been getting close. I was able to find this figure's sword weapon in a big pile of various other weapons, so I must be getting close! The hunt continues.....

Actually Gilgamesh, the WB He-man figure I won from ebay over a year and a half ago had marked on his back Mattel 1981 Mexico. The figure was in every way authentic if we follow Daivd's description of his figure and therefore not a custom or repaint. Where the figure is now : My brother, a Captain in the Army, was excited for his wedding day to come a week after Christmas 2001. Well, unfortunately, or fortunately as the case turned out, his fiancee bailed out for another guy behind his back, leaving him alone and sad for the holidays. So, I flew down to Texas and put a black faced Grizzlor and that WB He-man in his stocking. Sure enough the Power of Grayskull picked his spirits up and neither Skeletor nor the evil finacee could wipe the smile from his face that day. He-man wins again, even if he was sporting brown hair that time.